oy Dotrice was born on the
Island of Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands off the coast of France
and part of the United Kingdom. He was the first child of Louis and Neva
Dotrice who were well respected, quality bakers. But when the Germans
occupied the island in 1940, Roy, his mother and brother escaped to England.
Here, in 1942 at age 16, Roy joined the Royal Air Force and was trained
as a wireless operator and air gunner. He was soon flying missions, bombing
enemy territory until his plane was shot down. Captured and taken prisoner,
Roy spent the rest of the war as a P.O.W., where his first taste for the
theater took root, performing concerts to raise the spirits of his fellow
inmates.
At the end of the war, Roy decided to follow his instincts and pursue
an acting career. It was at this time Roy met and married actress Kay
Newman, and for the next three and half years, they acted in repertory
with Charles Denville and the Denville Players. During this time, Roy
also produced and directed some three hundred plays, with a new one being
performed each week.
In 1957, Roy joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford, England,
(later to become the Royal Shakespeare Company), and for the next nine
years performed in all of Shakespeare's plays while working with the world's
greatest actors and directors. Interestingly enough, Roy considers his
greatest achievement was to introduce baseball into what had been a cricket
stronghold, and in 1959 he pitched for his team that included at first
base, Paul Robeson (Othello); second base, Sam Wanamaker (Iago); third
base, Laurence Olivier (Coriolanus), short stop, Peter O'Toole (Shylock);
Charles Laughton (Lear) plate umpire and Albert Finney his catcher.
The training he received was to lead him into radio, film, television,
and a multitude of wonderful theater productions staged throughout the
world. Roy has appeared in ten Broadway productions and received a Tony
nomination for his work in A Life, and on June 4, 2000 received
a Tony award for his outstanding performance in A Moon for the Misbegotten.
Roy and Kay have been married for 53 years and have three daughters, all
whom have become actresses.